Albania, Croatia, Côte d’Ivoire and San Marino signed the Artemis Accords in a five-day span in late September 2026, taking the number of signatory countries to 76. NASA marked the milestone in a release tied to the Artemis Accords Principals’ Meeting, which began Oct. 5 in Antalya, Turkey. The four signings were numbers 73 through 76 on the agency’s tally.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman put the pace in context: “Nearly one-third of all signatories have joined since the start of President Trump’s second term.” The agency’s release adds that nearly 40% of the world’s nations now take part in the framework, which began in 2020 with the United States and seven other countries and has become one of the fastest expansions of international civil space cooperation on record, in NASA’s description.
Four signings from Washington to Abidjan
Albania went first. The ceremony at NASA Headquarters on Sept. 21 made it the 73rd signatory, with NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson hosting Ferit Hoxha, Albania’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador Ervin Bushati.
Croatia followed on Sept. 23 in Zagreb as the 74th. According to NASA’s account of the signing, Science, Education and Youth Minister Radovan Fuchs signed for Croatia, and Anderson joined by pre-recorded remarks, calling it his privilege “to welcome the Republic of Croatia as the latest signatory.” NASA noted that Croatia launched its first satellite, CroCube, in December 2024 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9.
Côte d’Ivoire signed on Sept. 24 at the Africa Space Expo, ASPEX 2026, in Abidjan, becoming the 75th country and the ninth African nation, Space in Africa reported. Higher Education and Scientific Research Minister Adama Diawara signed, and the U.S. Embassy’s chargé d’affaires, Junaid Munir, witnessed it. Côte d’Ivoire set up a national space agency in 2025 and has worked with NASA on Earth observation since 2019. Anderson, per the same report, said the two countries already cooperate on Earth and that the signing expands the partnership “beyond it.”
San Marino closed the run on Sept. 25 in Rimini, Italy. The NASA welcome records Minister of Industry and Technological Research Rossano Fabbri as the signatory and numbers the country 76th. Anderson said San Marino joins “a growing coalition of like-minded nations committed to the peaceful, transparent, and responsible exploration of space.” Fabbri said San Marino “fully” shares the principles and values of the Accords and is convinced the signatories will contribute to international cooperation in space.
Ten commitments and the safety-zone provision
The Accords are a set of political commitments, not a treaty. NASA’s Artemis Accords page lists ten: peaceful purposes, transparency, interoperability, emergency assistance, registration of space objects, scientific data sharing, preserving space heritage, space resources, deconfliction and orbital debris. The page says they reinforce obligations under the Outer Space Treaty, the Registration Convention and the Rescue and Return Agreement.
The remaining commitments are less contested. On transparency, signatories agree to broadly disseminate information about their national space policies and exploration plans. Under emergency assistance they pledge to aid astronauts in distress, and under scientific data sharing they promise to release results openly for worldwide benefit. A heritage clause covers the protection of historically significant sites and artifacts, and the debris clause calls for planning the mitigation and safe disposal of spacecraft.
Two of the ten draw the closest attention. The space-resources commitment says extracting and using lunar, Martian and asteroid resources is permitted under the Outer Space Treaty. The deconfliction principle sets out “safety zones,” temporary boundaries around operations meant to prevent harmful interference between missions. NASA’s page presents both as ways to coordinate activity under existing treaties, and the commitments it lists include nothing that assigns ownership of lunar territory. Because the framework is non-binding, each signatory’s adherence rests on its own policies and on the transparency it has agreed to practice.
NASA established the Accords in 2020 together with the U.S. Department of State, which describes itself as co-leading the effort for the United States and calls the framework non-binding.
The Antalya principals’ meeting
The release says the Principals’ Meeting convenes Oct. 5 in Antalya, co-chaired by NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson and Roberto Melgar Sheen, director of Peru’s space agency. Its agenda, according to the release, covers emerging space nations and strategies for lunar debris mitigation, which fits the profile of the latest signers: NASA says San Marino lacks extensive national space infrastructure and is exploring opportunities in future lunar projects, and Croatia’s first satellite flew less than two years ago.
The NASA release frames 76 as the count at the start of the meeting. The release does not list any countries expected to sign next, and it gives no date for a 77th signing, and the Accords page showed San Marino as the most recent signatory when it was read.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
More from Morning Overview
- Invisible volcanic gas at a California ski resort has killed three ski patrollers
- Verizon just moved to cut landline phone service in 9 states within weeks
- Tropical Storm Rachel is dumping up to 12 inches on four Mexican states on its way to major hurricane strength
- The NSA is again telling phone owners to switch off one location setting
